ECHOES of the WEEK

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 57, 30 November 1929, Page 21

ECHOES of the WEEK

PRESS OPINIONS ON w

NEW ZEALAND TOPICS

Lake Coleridge is now in its 15th year of operation; its annual profits have been sufficient to cover earlier losses, to pay interest, depreciation and sinking fund charges except for a sum of £7561 under the last heading. It is expected that this year’s profits will be sufficient to extinguish all arrears, so that the station will start its 16th year on a fully profitable basis. The first unit of the Arapuni scheme was brought into service last June. It is expected that the results for the current financial year will be a loss of £29,000, allowing for capital charges but not sinking fund, but in the following year it is estimated that revenue will be sufficient to pay all charges, including sinking fund. Thus Arapuni will pay its way, virtually from the outset. Whether this result is being achieved by the operation of ■ charges disproportionate to those ruling elsewhere should be determined. There is no doubt that the electricity supply should be fully self-supporting, and a strong case can be made for uniform rates, even if the levelling involves an increase to the Auckland scale. —“New Zealand Herald.”

Mr. Holland may think it safe to promise the public servants another half million a year, but if the turn of events should place him in office, he would have no peace until the half million was paid, and no peace thereafter; and in the end he would find the people whose wages he raised joining forces with his bitterest opponents. From his own point of view, therefore, it was a stupid blunder. From the public point of view it was worse than that. In the plainest possible words he put it to the civil servants that they had two alternatives, and two only: Either they should strike, or else they should put the Labour Party in power. Of course he went on to advocate constitutional methods of obtaining their desires, but whether he meant it or not, his very explicit statement left it to be inferred that if the Labour Party could not get into power the civil servants would have no. remedy for their grievances but to strike. The possibility of such a development is happily remote, and the public are not likely to be seriously disturbed by talk of the kind, but it is important that politicians' should have a sense of their responsibility in such matters.—“ Christchurch Times.”

Johnston is an intelligent man who had been warned of the fraudulent character of the business in which he was engaged, and yet, intelligent man though he is, had persisted in it. But it is true, also, that he was himself the victim of, as Mr. Justice Kennedy put it, “the initial pernicious influence of a man at present beyond the jurisdiction” of the Supreme Court in New Zealand. It is this man Taverner who is the real culprit, and it must be regarded as highly unfortunate that it whs not until after he had left the Dominion, presumably to return to England, where he was formerly in trouble, that the . police decided upon the institution of a prosecution. It was he, as the promoter of the fraud, that should most appropriately have stood in the dock. To this consideration due weight was given by the Judge in his conclusion that Johnston should not have to submit to a vicarious punishment for those primarily responsible for the perpetration of the swindle. — “Otago Daily Times.” ■

Chambers of Commerce are already agitating for the removal of the one per cent, extra primage duty’ imposed by the Budget on the plea of revenue necessity, to balance the national accounts; and the agitation is based on the ground that the large increase in the value of imports and the consequent increase in Customs revenue make it unnecessary to go on collecting the extra primage. It is doubtful whether the explanations given at any time justified the impost, but even if they did, there is no reason why it should be continued when they cease to do so. Tbe additional duty was intended to meet a particular contingency. If it can be shown that other sources are sufficient to meet it, having expanded beyond the first estimate, then the excuse for this levy on the public’s pocket disappears; and the facts strongly suggest that other sources are sufficient. —Christchurch “Press.”

Because the Dominions are for the most part firmly convinced that Free Trade is theoretically unsound and practically a failure, we believe that "Empire Free Trade” is a wholly visionary project. Lord Beaverbrook’s idea of holding the Empire together by fiscal means is an admirable one—as witness the experience of Germany and of the United States. But the most obvious and least objectionable method to follow is that already adopted by tbe Dominions with their offer of Preferential Trade to Britain. Lord Arnold, however, agrees with Mr. Sndwden that Free Traders must not listen to this appeal, and the Cobdenites of the next generation may find that in rejecting Imperial Reciprocity they have done the Empire irreparable injury.—“ Auckland Star.”

Once the public has grown accustomed to purchasing New Zealand goods, they 'will be able to hold their own even if protection is removed: for there is quality in these goods. All that is necessary is the education of tbe public to demand the products of New Zealand factories. Tbe advantage of doing this is obvious. The Dominion’s annual imports amount to approximately £45,000,000, and this amount can be reduced considerably by the general practice of purchasing New Zealand manufactures) If this were done, more New Zealand money would circulate in the Dominion; more New Zealanders would be employed in the factories, and in addition the money circulating for the mutual benefit of town and country would be an insurance protecting everybody from the financial tragedies that have followed slumps caused almost ’exclusively by dependence on one line of industry when there was another waiting to be developed.—Christchurch “Sun.”

The growth of betting on sport since the war has been phenomenal almost in every country throughout a mad world. The new generation is a betting generation and refuses to believe that there is any moral evil in its mania for gambling. Perhaps modern education is at fault; possibly the guardians of spiritual thought have been too generous in tolerance. New Zealand is no worse than any other country, but then it also is no better. Its quota of Turf sport, under a gambling State which takes first bite at investments, is fractionally more than eight races every week-day throughout each year. Thoughtful people who see the national drift deeper into careless squandermania, must give serious consideration to the need of moderation in gamblers’ sport, as in other and worse diversions. —Auckland “Sun.”

The most important fact about- the Wellington wool sale is that it did at least as much to relieve anxiety as to cause it, and probably more. As the first sale of the season it has been anticipated with a good deal of interest, and, in view of world conditions, somewhat apprehensive interest ; but, while a drop in prices was recorded, it was not as sharp as many growers were prepared for. .An allround decrease of fivepence from the levels reached at the corresponding sale a year ago would not have been surprising, though it would, of course, have been distinctly depressing; but the decrease hfis been less than that. The sale has therefore been as successful as expert opinion counted on, and a shade better.—Christchurch “Press.”

It appears that on the roils of the profession there are, or may be, some members in whom the Law Society has little confidence in respect of incorruptibility in the handling of trust money, for right of action in relation to the fund is denied in case of theft of trust money by a solicitor against whom the defrauded client has been warned in writing by the council of the Law Society as unfit for employment in the capacity of a trustee. The principle and practice of insurance against dishonesty is not new. Banks require guarantors in respect of those entering their service, and so do some other classes of mercantile houses; while it is understood that in some branches of the Civil Service subscription to a fund similar to that being instituted by the Law Society is compulsory. Fidelity insurance is now a recognised branch of the inSur.Wc6 'bWn6SSrthcse risks being accepted in the same way as fire, marine, and accident risks. It will be open to the council of the Law Society to reinsure with any fidelity insurance company doing business in the Dominion, and possibly in the infancy of the fund at least that step will be resorted to.—Dunedin “Star.”

Anyone who has watched traffic in a busy street, or even a fairly busy street, cannot miss seeing numerous instances of careless alighting on the off side of vehicles, with the consequent risk of serious accident. During the last twelve months many people have been injured from this very cause. Nothing is more confusing to a motorist while proceeding along a crowded thoroughfare and keeping a look-out for the hundred and one ordinary risks of city traffic than to have someone dash unexpectedly across his path from the off side of a stationary vehicle. Unfortunately at rush shopping hour the danger is at its height and women are frequently the worst offenders, though not the only offenders. Such persons act hastily, without a doubt, glancing neither to the front nor the rear, but such carelessness is criminal. That fatalities do not occur daily is something of a miracle. AVe hope that the City Council will not only strictly enforce the new by-law, but also other regulations intended to make for greater safety in the streets. —Christchurch “Star.”

It would be rash to generalise from the range of wool prices current in Wellington. The North Island has not experienced a good •winter, and the quality of the offerings appears to have been distinctly below the average. Furthermore, so pronounced was the comparative weakness shown by fine wools that an anomalous position was reflected in coarser wools, in that the second grade wool sometimes realised more than first grade wool of tbe same clip. Local and temporary conditions probably account for this paradox. The last news by mail concerning the Australian sales indicates special inquiry for superfine wool, greasy merino fleece sometimes topping 2/- per lb. The wool growers in the' South Island, who auction a larger proportion of fine wool than their North Island confreres, need not attach undue importance to the somewhat perplexing features of the opening sale in the Dominion. It is evident that some of the largest buyers, taking the season as a whole, were largely playing the part of lookers-on yesterday, partly because what was catalogued was not specially attractive to them, and partly because they deem it wise to see transactions getting into their stride and values stabilised on different levels from those of last season without being affected by premature competition on any considerable scale.—Dunedin “Star.”

It is obviously impossible to fix Cabinet salaries on a scale that would justly remunerate, as the economic world reckons, ability of the first order, such as is still occasionally attracted to politics; and it remains, after all, one of the valuable tests of political worth that it should be ready to give up something, even some of Lord Birkenhead’s “glittering prizes,” for the unrewardable honour of national service. But here, as in England, the disparity is too great; no country has a right to choose men for its most responsible posts and say, “Because you are fittest to do this work you shall be poor, though you might have been rich.” These considerations do not at all affect the ordinary members; but It is the ordinary member, in New’ Zealand, who has ■ been persistently loud in his complaints and claims, and has in the end, snatched the means of satisfying them.—Christchurch “Press.”